


I, too, like to live luxuriously

by BadHidingSpot



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: CapSeptender, M/M, Mangos, Relax - Freeform, Sam deserves to just chill, TREAT YOURSELF, bath bombs, soft, tower fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 07:16:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20689613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadHidingSpot/pseuds/BadHidingSpot
Summary: Sam takes one evening a week to just relax and treat himself. He deserves it. He deserves the world.





	I, too, like to live luxuriously

**Author's Note:**

> This came about because I just really wanted Sam to have a nice, relaxing evening and also see if I could produce a short fic because I have a tendency to….go on. Happy CapSeptender!

He doesn’t put cucumber slices over his eyes because that would be a little much. Sam does, however, put on a nice grapefruit skin mask and lie back and close his eyes. He sets a timer for twenty minutes partly so he doesn’t have the mask on too long, but also so he doesn’t cut himself short on his “me-time”. If left to just lie in the bath Sam will get antsy, feel like he should be _doing_ something and will get out after only ten minutes. Setting a timer reminds him that he _is_ doing something: he’s taking care of himself.  


Sam loves scents so he has a Yankee candle he bought just for his bath time. It’s lemon lavender because Sam is going for a citrus and chill theme. The scent wafting through the room gives Sam something to focus his mind on that isn’t work, super villains, his mom’s approaching birthday, the search for Bucky Barnes, doing his laundry, or any of the other million little worries that Sam’s mind will drift to instead of relaxing if he doesn’t give himself outer stimulus to focus on. Whenever he feels himself drifting to one of these he takes a deep inhale and tries to decide if it smells more like lemon or lavender.  
Sam is good with money--he knows how to budget but since joining the avengers and getting an insane kind of paycheck from Tony Stark Sam finds he’s got a little more than he knows what to do with. It helps, also, that living in the tower cuts out a lot of Sam’s bills and it is four to ten less things to worry about every month. The trade off is that Sam has new worries, being an Avenger has its own anxieties just like being a soldier or a counselor was. This is why the bath is important, Sam reminds himself, taking a deep inhale of lavender and feeling his pores open up for the grapefruit mask. The point is, with his new paycheck, Sam can blow money on the important things for himself. Such as: the yankee candle, the face mask shipped from Korea in the subscription box he signed up for, mangos out of season, and most importantly, the Lush Fruity Giant Bombshell bath bomb. It’s vegan, which Sam isn’t but he tries to be conscious of his animal friends whenever he can. It has real slices of lemon, lime, and orange. It’s huge too, just over eleven ounces because Sam’s new bathtub in the tower is the size of a jacuzzi and he wants every inch of it filled with the fizzy tingle and colorful water. Sam has added in bubbles because what’s the point of a long, warm bath without bubbles? Sam used the L’Occitane lavender harvest foaming bath from Sephora because fuck yeah he can afford to go to Sephora on the regular now. Citrus and lavender is probably the greatest combination of two things since bananas and nutella.  


Sam wiggles his toes--he can feel his skin softening, his muscles relaxing, as he lets out a long content sigh and lays back on the bath pillow. This he actually didn’t purchase for himself but since Clint got it for him as a housewarming gift Sam can not imagine taking his weekly bath without it. It was a thoughtful gift; now Sam doesn’t get an ache in his neck from resting wrong against the porcelain and he’s so comfortable he can doze gently here. The pillow also offers some traction so that if Sam happens to fall asleep he doesn’t slip under the water and drown. He can feel the tension in his sore muscles, his bruises and scrapes from Avenging, slowly melting away like little bubbles popping.  


The twenty minute alarm goes off and Sam pulls the face mask away and tosses it unceremoniously into the trash bin near him. He stays in the bath, no desire to leave just yet. Before getting in he cut out some mango flesh and laid it out on a little plate on a tray he set next to the bath. Sam picks it up, one cube at a time, and delicately licks it into his mouth. It’s soft--that’s Sam’s favorite thing about mangos, more than the flavor, the gentle texture. It slides over his lips, leaving the taste and juice dripping down his chin, and over his tongue. He tries to go slow with it, eats the first half of the mango mindfully, but after that the desire and need for the delicious fruit takes precedences and he finds himself eating so ravenously that his hands are stained from fingertips to wrists with the juice--to say nothing of his lips. Sam runs his tongue over his lips and then laps up the juice from his hands and fingers one by one until there isn't a taste of mango left to be had. Only then is he finally satiated.  


He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and slips under the water just for a few moments. It’s warm and inviting, not a sound but the calm noise of the water slowly draining. He breaks the surface, knowing he has a tower of bubbles on his head, and then pulls the plug out. He dries off and then slides on his fluffy pink robe, this was a gift from Nat from Bed, Bath, and Beyond and it fits him snugly, like it can hold in all the comfort from the bath.  
Sam pads into the living room where he finds Clint watching Korean dramas on mute with his hearing aides out. Sam only stops by him for a moment, places a sweet kiss on Clint’s temple, and then picks up his copy of “Boy, Snow, Bird” on his way to the Papasan chair in the study to finish it--he only has around seventy pages left and Clint will let him read until dinner is ready. Sam curls into the chair and opens the book, he’s read four pages before Clint comes in, sets a fresh cup of chamomile tea on the side table next to him and mirrors the temple kiss, placing it on Sam and punctuating it with a nuzzle before slipping out to leave Sam and Helen Oyeyemi alone together. Sam sips the tea, feels the warm liquid all the way down his throat, and feels full and happy, truly at peace, both inside and out.


End file.
